260 STORY OF A LOST ARCHIPELAGO. 



coming northward from his discovery of the Louisiade Archipelago 

 and of the Australia del Espiritu Santo of Quiros, made the west 

 coast of a large island, now known as Choiseul Island, one of the 

 Solomon Islands. When the ships were about twenty miles south 

 of the present Choiseul Bay, boats were sent to look for an 

 anchorage, but they found the coast almost inaccessible. A second 

 attempt was made to find an anchorage in Choiseul Bay, but, night 

 coming on, the number of the shoals and the irregularity of the 

 currents prevented the ships from coming up to the anchorage. In 

 this bay the boats were attacked by about 150 natives in ten 

 canoes who were dispersed and routed by the second dischai'ge of 

 fire-arms. Two canoes were captured, in one of which was found 

 the jaw of a man half broiled. The island was named Choiseul by 

 its discoverer, and a river from which the natives had issued into the 

 bay was called "la riviere des Guerriers." Passing through the strait 

 which bears his name, the French navigator coasted along the east 

 side of Bougainville Island, and passed off the island of Bouka. 

 The natives who came off to the ship in their canoes displayed the 

 cocoa-nuts they had brought with them, and constantly repeated 

 the cry, " bouca, bouca, onelid." For this reason, Bougainville 

 named the island, Bouca, which is the name it still retains on the 

 chart. It is, however, evident from the narrative that the French 

 navigator never regarded this name as that by which the island 

 was known to its inhabitants. When Deutrecasteaux, during his 

 voyage in search of La Perouse, lay off this island in his ships in 

 17'J2, the natives who came off from the shore, as Labillardiere 

 informs us,^ made use of the same expression of " bouka." This 

 eminent naturalist considered that the word in question was a term 

 in the language of these islanders ; and he refers to it as a Malay 

 expression of negation, except when a pause is made on the first 

 syllable when it signifies " to open." On leaving behind him the 

 island of Bouka, Bougainville quitted the Solomon Group ; but 

 from his account it is apparent that he had no idea of having found 

 the missing archipelago. Referring to these islands in the intro- 

 duction to his narrative, he writes : — " supposing that the details 

 related of the wealtli of these islands are not fabulous, we are in 

 ignorance of their situation, and subsequent attempts to find them 

 have been in vain. It merely appears that they do not lie between 

 the eighth. and twelftli parallels of south latitude." In Bougain- 



^ Labillardicre's " Voyage a la recherche de la Perouse : " Paris 1800 : tome I., p. 227. 



